Doctor Who Rare Entries Contests

DWRE4: 11 July 2006

Results

Answers were slower than usual to come in, but we ended up with 30; a
decent number, but less than I hoped given for the theoretically
greater appeal of the New Series contest. Joint winners are Neil Toynay
and Wilf with an excellent score of just 16. First-time entrant
Dannyboy is third with a very impressive 60, despite one wrong answer -
and these in a contest with the worst scores well into the millions!
Congratulations to them, Here are the top answer slates (slightly
abbreviated). Use a monospaced font for proper alignment.
NEIL TOYNAY WILF DANNYBOY
0 Matt K9 Mark IV Captain Reynolds
1 Lucy Robinson Simon Greenall Jo Stone-Fewings
2 Stories w/ Pete Tyler Eps w/ P. Wilton Writers start w/M
3 Dave Martin Marc Platt Kit Pedler
4 K9 Mark IV Ghost hunting kit Dimens'l Trans'ism
5 National Lottery Big Brother News clips on phones
6 Tizana's pizza Albion Hospital Between two crates
7 Sisters of Plenitude Sisters of Plenitude Sycorax
8 Jump Mr Malinoff,Jump DWM diary [WRONG]
9 Peter Chester Dave Houghton Endaf Emyr Williams
To review the scoring:
The scores on the different questions are MULTIPLIED to produce a final
score for each entrant. Low score wins; a perfect score is 1. If your
answer to a question is correct, then your score is the number of
people who gave that answer, or an answer I consider equivalent. A
wrong answer, or a skipped question, gets a high score as a penalty.
This is the median of:
- the number of entrants
- the square root of that number, rounded up to an integer
- double the largest number of entrants giving the same answer (right
or wrong) as each other on the question
Here is the complete table of scores.
RANK SCORE ENTRANT Q0 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9
1 16 Neil Toynay 4 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1
= 16 Wilf 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 2
3 60 DannyBoy 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 5 WR 1
4 192 mw_x 4 2 1 1 1 2 1 6 1 2
5 288 chriskelk 1 2 1 8 1 3 2 3 1 1
6 1,680 BeyondtheVoid 2 2 1 5 1 1 2 3 2 7
7 1,920 Christopher Gerardy 4 2 4 5 1 1 2 6 1 1
8 3,360 Jonathan Morris 2 2 4 5 2 1 1 3 1 7
9 3,456 JesseS 1 1 4 8 2 1 2 3 3 3
10 5,376 Llama Roddy 1 2 1 8 2 2 1 6 2 7
11 5,400 Ceadge 1 2 1 5 12 1 1 5 3 3
12 7,680 Fortmap 6 2 1 8 4 1 1 5 2 2
13 8,640 Yohinchild 5 1 1 2 4 1 3 6 WR 2
14 9,072 BTN 3 1 1 6 2 1 2 6 3 7
15 12,096 Hotmissile 2 2 1 6 12 1 2 3 1 7
16 13,440 John Dorney 6 1 1 8 4 1 1 5 1 WR
17 15,120 Peter Scandrett 5 1 1 6 1 1 2 6 3 WR
18 19,200 Andrew Lowrie 1 3 2 4 2 5 8 5 2 1
19 23,328 Affirmation 6 2 1 6 12 1 3 3 3 1
20 24,192 exterminateallhumans 6 3 1 8 2 3 2 1 1 WR
21 28,800 Dave Jones 6 2 WR 5 2 5 2 3 1 1
22 31,104 Biggles 2 2 1 6 12 1 1 6 WR 3
23 34,560 Sean 4 2 1 4 12 5 1 3 2 3
= 34,560 Simon Kinnear 5 2 1 8 4 3 3 6 1 2
25 48,384 cols123 3 1 1 WR 2 1 3 2 WR WR
26 77,760 Artyclarty 3 2 1 6 1 WR 3 6 WR 2
27 311,040 Chris Brannigan 6 1 2 4 12 5 1 6 WR 3
28 1,161,216 kiwikat 1 WR WR WR 2 3 1 6 WR 7
29 2,721,600 Aaon 5 3 4 4 12 5 3 3 3 7
30 8,294,400 Michael S Collins 5 1 WR 8 12 WR 2 6 WR 3
Here is the complete list of answers given. Each list shows correct
answers in the order worst to best (most to least popular). >>>
indicates that the "more specific variant" scoring was used.
There was no problem with public posting of answers this time round,
I'm pleased to say.
0. Name someone who has seen the TARDIS appear or disappear.
6 The Doctor (The Parting of the Ways)
5 Charles Dickens
4 Matt (Army of Ghosts)
3 Rose Tyler
2 Adam (The Long Game)
2 Sarah Jane Smith
1 Abzorbaloff
1 Bev (Bridesmaid, Father's Day)
1 Captain Reynolds
1 Harriet Jones
1 K9 Mark IV
1 Mickey Smith
1 The Abzorbaloff
1 The Emperor Dalek
Dickens proved to be a popular answer here, maybe because seeing the
TARDIS disappear is a profound moment for him. As usual, The Doctor and
Rose feature strongly with several people commenting that no-one else
will want to be this obvious. This strategy tends not to work. Of
course, now I've said that it may... One entrant submitted "The
Ninth Doctor", but since I have previously ruled that a person who
regenerates is still the same person, this is not a more specific
variant here.
Matt is the chap in Army of Ghosts who sees the TARDIS on his monitor
and it may be this "one-remove" plus his recent appearance which
accounts for his strong showing.
The Emperor Dalek and K9 both just about scrape in as "someone"s
and the other answers were uncontroversial. Other right answers not
given include Jackie Tyler, Sycorax Leader, Alex (The Christmas
Invasion) and various people in the church in Father's Day.
1. Name an actor who has appeared in both the new series of Doctor Who
and in any episode or episodes of "The Bill"
3 Elisabeth Sladen
2 David Tennant
2 Dona Croll
2 Freema Agyeman
2 Judy Holt
2 Marc Warren
2 Noel Clarke
2 Rupert Vansittart
2 Simon Greenall
1 Annette Badland
1 Danny Webb
1 Ellen Thomas
1 Jo Stone-Fewings
1 John Leeson
1 Lucy Robinson
1 Rochelle Gadd
1 Silas Carson
1 Simon Day
1 Tim Faraday
Wrong
1 No answer given
Plenty to choose from here, with familiar faces like Elisabeth Sladen,
Noel Clarke, Marc Warren and Freema Agyman (who inspired the question)
tending to do better than the more obscure actors. I was surprised
David Tennant didn't get more votes.
Judy Holt was Adam's mum in The Long Game and had a recurring role in
The Bill in 2002. Dona Kroll was a Cat-Nun and appeared in two roles in
The Bill, seven years apart. I suspect their score of 2 among the more
well-known faces (in quite a flat distribution) is just coincidence.
2. Name something there were exactly three of in the new series.
4 Episodes with five word titles
2 Big Brother housemates
1 Announced Torchwood regular cast members
1 Appearances of The Face of Boe
1 Cars (not vans) Mickey Smith drives
1 Ds in 'Blaidd Drwg Project'
1 Episodes containing Daleks broadcast in 2005
1 Episodes featuring Penelope Wilton
1 Episodes featuring the Slitheen
1 Episodes set before 20th century
1 Episodes with 'The' as the first and fourth words
1 Forest of Cheem
1 Ghost-hunting pods
1 Male companions
1 Metal objects TARDIS crashed into
1 People in Rose's family
1 Reality shows on Satellite 5
1 Robot TV Presenters
1 Stories featuring Pete Tyler
1 Transmission blocks
1 Versions of end title music
1 Ways to enter Battersea Power Station
1 Writers whose first name starts with M
Wrong
1 Adherents of the Repeated Meme (five)
1 People possessed by Cassandra (four)
1 Things picked up by ninth Doctor in Rose's flat (four)
A "use your imagination" rather than a "do your research"
question which makes the collision on "five word titles" even more
bizarre. You also have to be able to count - there were more than
three Adherents of the Repeated Meme, and Cassandra possessed a patient
as well as The Doctor, Chip and Rose.
The three Torchwood cast members are John Barrowman (Captain Jack), Eve
Myles (Gwyneth in The Unquiet Dead) and Naoko Mori (Doctor Sato in
Aliens of London).
After some thought, I accepted the answer "Ds in 'Blaidd Drwg
Project'". This looks more like an answer to "What are there
three of in 'Blaidd Drwg Project'?". I think if I give you a
constraint, you can't add further constraints to make a wrong answer
right - and there was no shortage of right answers here. Even the
entrant commented that this was not a good answer. However, rejecting
this would probably also have meant rejecting "Dalek episodes in
2005" and "Cars Mickey Smith drives (not vans)" and I couldn't
see a clear place to draw the line.
"Things picked up by the Ninth Doctor in Rose's flat in Rose"
falls into the same category, but thankfully this was an incorrect
answer in any case: even if one discounts the Auton hand, the entrant
forgot the letter addressed to Rose, citing only cards, book and
magazine.
The three versions of the end title music are Murray Gold's original,
the National Orchestra of Wales version and the combination of both
heard when the "Next Episode" preview is delayed.
3. Name someone who received a credit on at least one episode of the
new series, but who did not in fact work on that episode.
8 Gerry Davis
6 Ron Grainer
5 Robert Holmes
4 Terry Nation
2 Kit Pedler
1 Dave Martin
1 Fintan Coyle
1 Marc Platt
Wrong
1 Jo Joyner
1 No answer given
Generally this means people whose prior work was re-used, or to whom
thanks are due. Ron Grainer was a popular answer - not surprising as
I think he must be the most-credited person on Doctor Who, appearing in
the credits of every episode bar one, I believe (ob-puzzle: name the
one). See question 9 for more on him.
I believe only two right answers were overlooked here. Dave Martin got
a mention, but nobody picked fellow K9 creator Bob Baker. Similarly
Fintan Coyle was submitted once, but fellow Weakest Link creator Cathy
Dunning was never named. The entrant who submitted "Jo Joyner"
seemed to think that she would be credited for her appearance in a
flashback. This was not the case.
4. Name a piece of Time Lord technology we have seen in the new series.
12 TARDIS
>>> 2 TARDIS power cell
>>> 1 TARDIS console
>>> 1 TARDIS oxygen masks
4 Genesis Ark
2 Anti-plastic
2 Binoculars (The Empty Child)
2 K9 Mark IV
2 Sonic Screwdriver
1 Dimensional Transcendentalism
1 Ghost hunting kit
1 Psychic Paper
1 SIM card (The End of the World)
1 TARDIS key
1 Voidstuff detectors (3d glasses)
A slight goof on my part. This question should have been better phrased
so as not to imply that only the TARDIS and The Genesis Ark were
correct answers. But even without assuming that gadgets in The
Doctor's possession are "Time Lord technology" (on the basis that
The Doctor is a Time Lord), some entrants managed to ferret out a few
other right answers. TARDIS was overwhelmingly the most popular choice,
however, hurt further by the presence of a number of more specific
variants (it was the worst correct answer in the quiz, and the worst
since DWRE1).
Dimensional Transcendentalism is not a more specific variant of TARDIS
due to its also being present in the Genesis Ark, nor is the TARDIS key
a part of the TARDIS the way the console is.
5. Name something which exists in the world today, which also features
in the fictional world of the new series stories, and which did not
exist in 1989.
5 London Eye
3 BBC News 24
3 Rose's mobile phone
>>> 1 Nokia 3200
>>> 1 Samsung D500
2 Toxic by Britney Spears
1 Big Brother
1 Bluetooth headsets
1 Millennium Centre
1 Most Haunted
1 National Lottery
1 Picture messaging by mobile phone
1 Punkyfish clothing
1 Roald Dahl Plass
1 The Gherkin (The Swiss Re Tower)
1 The Weakest Link
1 The music of The Streets
1 The word 'chav'
1 Trisha
1 Video news clips on mobile phones
1 Weblogs
Wrong
2 Mobile phones (invented 1947, in existence since 1950s, in regular
use by 1987)
The two "trap" answers here were mobile phones (in common use by
1987) and the Internet (which reached Britain in 1982 - although
"World Wide Web" would have been a correct answer). Sadly for me,
the Internet snared no-one and mobile phones only two - although more
specific answers such as "Bluetooth headset" or "Nokia 3200"
were obviously correct. Instead, to my surprise, The London Eye was the
runaway top answer, along with a number of other modern landmarks. 21st
century television programmes also featured very strongly.
The music of "The Streets" is heard diagetically (no, you look it
up!) in Father's Day and I believe Rose was seen in Punkyfish
clothing in The Parting of the Ways.
The Roald Dahl Plass is the area of Cardiff Bay which also contains the
Millennium Centre.
"The Weakest Link" caused me to pause for a moment, since "our"
Weakest Link has not been seen on Doctor Who, only the Anne-Droid
version. I eventually decided the question didn't require the
fictional and real versions to be absolutely identical in every
respect, and further that I think the implication is that The Weakest
Link has been continually broadcast since the 21st century - or at
least wasn't first invented on Satellite Five.
6. Name somewhere the TARDIS has landed.
8 London
>>> 3 Albion Hospital
>>> >>> 2 Cupboard inside Albion Hospital
>>> 1 Jackie Tyler's flat
>>> 1 Rear of Tizana's pizza restaurant
>>> 1 The Powell Estate
>>> 1 Between two crates, Dame Kelly Holmes Close
3 Cardiff
>>> 2 In front of Millennium Centre
3 Dalek Command Ship
3 New Earth
>>> 2 New New York
>>> >>> 1 Outskirts of New New York
2 Bottom of the Satan Pit
2 Raxacoricofallapatorius
2 Woman wept
1 Captain Jack's ship
1 Florizel Street
1 Parallel London
1 Platform 1
1 SS Madame du Pompadour
1 Sycorax ship
1 Utah
This was designed to give the "more specific variant" scoring a
workout, penalising those who cited a planet or a city ("London"
was the worst answer despite only being given by one entrant!). No
extra points for adding the year though.
I guess there is an argument to be made for "parallel London" being
a more specific variant of London, but none of the other places cited
refer to places where the TARDIS has landed on parallel Earth, so it
didn't seem right.
Two entrants pointed out the TARDIS may not have materialised at the
bottom of the Satan Pit but it certainly "landed" there. Good point
and a correct answer. This question also should have read "somewhere
we have seen the TARDIS land". This would have ruled out journeys we
only heard about, two of which, Raxacoricofallapatorius and Woman Wept
(mentioned in Boom Town), turned out to be a bit of a trap - so no
harm done!!
"In front of Millennium Centre" and "Roald Dahl Plass" were
treated as equivalent (since they both describe the same landing, with
about the same accuracy).
No wrong answers here, and the rest of the correct answers seem
uncontroversial.
7. Name an alien race which we have seen at least two members of, and
heard at least one speak.
6 Forest of Cheem
6 Ood
5 Sycorax
3 Gelth
3 Krillitanes
3 Raxacoricofallapatorians
2 Daleks
>>> 1 Daleks made from human tissue
2 Sisters of Plenitude
As far as I can tell, all possible right answers were given, with a
pretty flat distribution and no wrong answers either. Sorry for setting
such a boring question!!
Most ingenious answer (and also best-scoring) was Daleks made from
human tissue, successfully differentiating the Daleks made from humans
harvested on Satellite Five from those we saw in Doomsday.
With so few correct answers available, I didn't worry about such
things as the species name of the Sisters of Plenitude, or the spelling
of Raxacoricofallapatorians.
8. Some people who have contributed to Doctor Who episodes have written
other things. Name one such thing first made available to the public
after at least one of that person's Doctor Who episodes was
transmitted.
3 Kidulthood (Noel Clarke)
3 Odd (Robert Shearman)
2 DWM articles (Russell T Davies)
>>> 1 DWM Production Notes, July (Russell T Davies)
2 The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse (Mark Gatiss et al)
2 Weblog (Paul Cornell)
1 Alien Autopsy (music by Murray Gold)
1 Cake (Helen Raynor)
1 Cyberman audios (Nicholas Briggs)
1 DWM diary (James Strong)
1 Free Jimmy (Simon Pegg)
1 Jump Mr Malinoff, Jump! (Toby Whithouse)
1 Orson Welles: Hello Americans (Simon Callow)
1 Series One Pitch (Russell T Davies)
1 Teacher's Pet (Robert Shearman)
1 The Cruel Sea (Robert Shearman)
Wrong
2 No answer given
1 Casanova (RTD, transmitted March 2005)
1 Jekyll (Steven Moffatt, not yet released)
1 Mark Gatiss (person given, work asked for)
1 Robin Hood (Paul Cornell, not yet transmitted)
1 The Opposite (Tom MacRae, published April 2006)
1 The Vesuvius Club (Mark Gatiss, published November 2004)
Probably the trickiest question in the contest (if not all the contests
to date). You couldn't rely on a quick IMDB search here, you had to
notice just how broad the scope and also how narrow the possible range
of dates was. The person concerned didn't need to have written for
Doctor Who, and they could have written anything that was "made
available to the public" - it just had to made available after
their first Doctor Who episode went out, and before today.
One entrant told me that none of the Doctor Who writers met my
criteria. Not only do Robert Shearman and Mark Gatiss obviously and
uncontroversially fit my criteria (for the radio plays "Odd" and
"Teacher's Pet" and the film "The League of Gentlemen's
Apocalypse" respectively) but the question didn't limit you to
writers! One of the answers I had in mind was Maureen Lipman's
Guardian columns (not given). Another was "Kidulthood", by Noel
Clarke which turned out to be one of the top answers.
Any work not yet made available to the public is ruled out (since the
question requires it to have been "made available" - past tense)
but other than that I cut entrants a bit of slack here, treating "DWM
articles" and "Cyberman audios" as a "thing" (not my problem
if someone else submits a more specific variant!) and being fairly easy
on people who submitted answers like "Noel Gardner wrote a film
called Kidulthood". The "Mark Gatiss" answer marked wrong cited
"The Vesuvius Club" which is wrong anyway (see below).
My favourite answer was Russell T Davies' Series One Pitch. Obviously
written before any of the New Series began transmitting, but not
"made available to the public" until it was published in DWM! In
factr, DWM was a rich source of answers, with several DWM articles and
one comic strip (Rob Shearman's "The Cruel Sea") making an
appearance.
Since I didn't specify that scripts or words had to be written,
Murray Gold's music for "Alien Autopsy" is certainly a correct
answer. Other non-scriptwriters included Simon Callow whose Orson
Welles biography (part 2) was published after The Unquiet Dead and
Simon Pegg who wrote the screenplay for something called "Free
Jimmy" (IMDB has the details).
Finally, people don't write hardback or paperback editions. They
write books which may be published in different forms, but the same
piece of writing is being "made available" each time. Hence you
cannot turn The Vesuvius Club (first published 2004) into a right
answer by citing the paperback edition, which was published later. I
probably would have accepted the graphic novel version (published 7
November 2005) since presumably Gatiss, as the only credited author,
adapted his own novel - but nobody tried this. On this basis, I
accepted Toby Whithouse's radio play (first broadcast 8 July 2006)
which he adapted from his own stage play (first performed 2000).
Paul Cornell's blog is at http://paulcornell.blogspot.com/.
9. Name someone who has been credited on every single episode of the
new series.
7 Ron Grainer (theme)
3 Phil Collinson (producer)
3 Richard Pugsley (Finance Manager)
2 Andy Pryor (casting)
2 Dave Houghton (Visual FX supervisor)
2 Murray Gold (Music)
1 Billie Piper
1 Edward Thomas (production designer)
1 Endaf Emyr Williams (Production Accountant)
1 Julie Gardner (producer)
1 Kath Blackman (Prod Accountant)
1 Peter Chester (best boy)
1 Rusell T Davies (Executive Producer)
Wrong
1 Chris Petts (not credited on Boom Town)
1 David Tennant
1 Helen Raynor (not credited on e.g. Rose)
1 Tracie Simpson (not credited on e.g. Tooth and Claw)
An easier one to finish on - just a matter of careful checking. Only
one entrant went for Russell T Davies on this one, so maybe my comments
on question 0 were wrong after all. I can only assume that the entrant
who submitted David Tennant assumed that the phrase "new series"
meant the 2006 series, despite the presence of this sentence in bold
type at the top: "Note that this time round, all questions apply only
to the new series which debuted in 2005."
Ron Grainer was the only person who would have been a right answer to
this and question 3 (someone who was credited but did not contribute)
however answering Ron Grainer twice did you no favours as this was the
worst answer on both questions.
DWRE5 will have the more usual all-encompassing scope and will no doubt
follow early next week, once all the wailing and gnashing of teeth has
subsided. Whether there will be more after that depends on take-up.
Cheers
Tom
-----
Here are my rulings, based on feedback both here and on OG.
Errors: The Abzorbaloff was listed twice as two different answers, and
scored like this. This has been corrected. Florizel Street should have
been scored as a More Specific Variant of London, and the Tyler flat as
a More Specific Variant of The Powell Estate.
K9 Mark IV: All evidence suggests that K9 Mark IV was built by The
Doctor. He therefore qualifies as Time Lord technology according to the
interpretation note provided. He also qualifies as a "person" for the
purposes of Question 0.
Psychic Paper: While this is also seen in Captain Jack's possession,
this is not quite enough to render it a wrong answer.
Shows on Satellite 5: The entrant wrote "There were three evil reality
shows in the 2002nd century" and this is a wrong answer. Had they
written "We saw three evil reality shows..." this would have been a
correct answer, provided I accepted The Weakest Link as a "reality"
show.
Housemates: One entrant wrote "There were exactly three people in the
Big Brother House immediately prior to the Doctor leaving." and the
other "Big Brother housemates when the Doctor arrived." These are both
correct answers, and I treated them as equivalent (a little harsh that,
but I'm satisfied with my ruling).
Here is the new table of scores - there are no changes in the top
rankings.
RANK SCORE ENTRANT Q0 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9
1 16 Wilf 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 2
= 16 Neil Toynay 4 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1
3 60 DannyBoy 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 5 WR 1
4 96 mw_x 4 2 1 1 1 2 1 6 1 1
5 168 chriskelk 1 2 1 7 1 2 2 3 1 1
6 1,260 Fortmap 6 1 1 7 3 1 1 5 1 2
7 1,680 BeyondtheVoid 2 2 1 5 1 1 2 3 2 7
8 1,920 Christopher Gerardy 4 2 4 5 1 1 2 6 1 1
9 2,880 Yohinchild 4 1 1 2 3 1 2 5 WR 2
10 3,024 JesseS 1 1 4 7 2 1 2 3 3 3
11 3,360 Jonathan Morris 2 2 4 5 2 1 1 3 1 7
12 3,780 BTN 3 1 1 6 2 1 1 5 3 7
13 5,400 Ceadge 1 2 1 5 12 1 1 5 3 3
14 8,820 John Dorney 6 1 1 7 3 1 1 5 1 WR
15 14,112 exterminateallhumans 6 3 1 7 2 2 2 1 1 WR
16 16,800 Andrew Lowrie 1 3 2 4 2 5 7 5 2 1
17 23,328 Affirmation 6 2 1 6 12 1 3 3 3 1
18 28,800 Dave Jones 6 2 WR 5 2 5 2 3 1 1
19 31,104 Biggles 2 2 1 6 12 1 1 6 WR 3
20 31,360 Llama Roddy 1 2 WR 7 2 2 1 5 2 7
21 34,560 Sean 4 2 1 4 12 5 1 3 2 3
22 42,336 cols123 3 1 1 WR 2 1 3 2 WR WR
23 80,640 Peter Scandrett 4 1 WR 6 1 1 2 5 3 WR
24 96,768 Hotmissile 2 2 WR 6 12 1 2 3 1 7
25 311,040 Chris Brannigan 6 1 2 4 12 5 1 6 WR 3
26 518,400 Artyclarty 3 2 WR 6 1 WR 3 5 WR 2
27 1,016,064 kiwikat 1 WR WR WR 2 3 1 6 WR 7
28 2,177,280 Aaon 4 3 4 4 12 5 3 3 3 7
29 5,806,080 Michael S Collins 4 1 WR 7 12 WR 2 6 WR 3
Cheers
Tom